Union members supported Trump in defiance of organizational endorsements of Harris
PITTSBURGH, Pa. ‒ Union workers who defied their organizations' endorsements of Democrat Kamala Harris and instead voted for Republican Donald Trump helped hand him his victory in the manufacturing belt.
They included steelworkers, who organized their support using a Facebook group that grew to nearly 2,000 people, and building tradespeople, whose union president made trips throughout the Midwest trying to persuade them to vote Democrat.
It's a stunning defeat for the Democratic Party, which for decades prided itself as the party of organized labor, and victory for Trump, who has put the plight of working-class Americans centerstage in his political messaging.
"The steelworkers didn't leave the Democrats," said Richard Tikey, who works for U.S. Steel and serves as vice president of Local 1557 Clairton Works. "The Democrats left the steelworkers."
United Steelworkers, the union that represents Tikey, endorsed Harris the day after Biden withdrew from the presidential election, becoming one of the first unions to do so. "I have no idea why they endorse Democrats," Tikey said. "They do it every election."
Tikey, who started his career as a member of United Auto Workers, said Democratic policies have cost too many union jobs, and pointed to car manufacturing jobs moving to Mexico. He praised Trump's 2018 decision to impose tariffs on cheap steel from China as saving the industry.
Paul Clark, a professor of labor and employment relations at Penn State University, said the Biden administration has been "very, very union-friendly," and supported policies that help unions as organizations. But he said unions don't build endorsements around social issues.
"The problem of immigration is more of a social issue, I think, than an economic issue," Clark said. "Transgenderism, gun issues — the sort of woke concerns — are issues that unions don't really address."
With only 10% of workers who were members of a union in 2023, the power of unions is declining. But they're stronger in Michigan and Pennsylvania, where nearly 13% of workers were union members, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics .
Jim Lloyd, 42, who works in Clairton, said he was a Democrat who voted for Barack Obama in 2008. Three years into Obama's first term, he said he registered as a Republican and has been voting for conservatives ever since.
"I think recently here, we've gotten a group that's always been where we've been, always wanted to support who we wanted to support," Lloyd said. "But they're being a little more loud about it. They're coming out in the open, and they're not afraid to hide anymore."
Lloyd said he is hopeful a Trump administration can end taxes on overtime pay, something he said would benefit him because he works an average of 100 hours per week. "They have a pretty thorough plan from what we can see now," he said of the Trump campaign.
Doug Leicher, 44, of Pittsburgh, is a painter represented by the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. The umbrella union endorsed Harris. But he voted Republican across the board. He said he agrees with Trump's views on immigration and the economy.
"She hasn't spoken anything that she was going to do," Leicher said Tuesday. He said he's always voted Republican, but has noticed that more of his colleagues are Republicans. He estimated there's about a 50/50 split among the members he knows.
Jimmy Williams, the general president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, toured swing states this year trying to convince people like Leicher to vote for Democrats. He said Democrats promote more union-friendly policies than Republicans but aren't getting enough support from his members.
"It's this feeling," Williams said. "It's this economic kind of message that I think the Democratic Party doesn't do a good enough job of selling from the top. And I think our members have been completely put in the middle of that."
Devin Williams, 36, of Pittsburgh, is a construction worker represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. That union, too, endorsed Harris the day after Biden dropped out of the race.
Williams voted for Harris, but acknowledged not everyone in his union would do the same.
"The loudest ones are the ones who seem to vote for Trump," he said.
